Somos Kidz: Animating Covid-19 awareness
To support all the efforts of Somos, an independent practice association, during the pandemic, we were approached to create a web show called Somos Kidz that highlights how to be prepared and respond during the first months of the health crisis. We created five fully animated episodes telling the adventures of Nia, Katie & Juan. Three kids living in a world with new rules for almost everything, and how they learn and adapt to the new situation.
The challenge was to simplify a complicated subject and provide tools and a new perspective on how to face the new reality through straight forward approach that was aligned with the vision of the physician-led network.
Client: SOMOS Community Care - Year: 2020 - Art direction: Andre Ramirez & Luis Grieve - Graphic design & Illustration: Juan Carlos Villafuerte - Motion Design & Character animation: Andre Ramirez
A new reality
Each one of the episodes teaches a different lesson that aligns with Somos’s patient centered philosophy. Nia, Katie & Juan learn about school, adapting to change, dealing with fear and more. They grow through the episodes in interactions with their parents and the different situations they face, with new tools at hand the kids develop (and teach to the audience) a new point of view about the pandemic.
Episode 1
Getting back to school after a lockdown is quite a journey. The kids learn how to be safe at school after getting back together.
Episode 2
In a new reality, Katie learns that is safe to go outside as long as she is careful and follow the proper health guidelines.
Development
We didn’t have any idea about our crew. We only knew that the perspective from a kid would be more valuable to learn from. Creating our characters was a fun task. We wanted each one to be unique and memorable. And importantly, each needed to embody the rich diversity of the city.
For a series, pre-production was the most important part of the process. The ability to reuse assets was a must. To achieve that, everything from the characters to the backgrounds where created with that in mind.
This production philosophy allowed an easy rigging process wich granted the characters a vast range of movement and expressions. The backgrounds gained depth, and the details endowed them with expressiveness and small easter eggs.
Some backgrounds made by JK
Episode 3
New ways to play games! Social distancing was a problem for playing in the park, and that is how shadow tag comes to the rescue.
Episode 4
Going to the doctor doesn’t have to be scary. The SOMOS Kidz help Katie through her first telemedicine visit.
